Rumor (A Renegades Novella) (14 page)

“Your hotel is closer.”

“God, I love the way you think.” He pushed her against the door of her car, kissed her hard, sweeping his tongue against hers with a sigh. “I love so much about you, it will take me years to point it all out.”

She raised her brows. “Years?”

His mouth kicked up in a hot smile. “Maybe even forever.”

That cage took a hard hit, rattling until it almost broke open and let that little dreamer free to wreak havoc on Grace’s heart. “Forever, huh?”

He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re a complicated woman.”

She sighed and nodded. A little too complicated for her taste. “I’ll follow you to the hotel.”

He settled her behind the wheel of her Honda, then jogged to his own car and started the engine. God, she was suddenly anxious. Nerves pulsed along her skin, kicked in her heart, steering her mind toward
Forever? Could it work?

Just as Josh pulled onto the street, Grace’s phone rang. With a quick glance around for cops, she answered, “This is Grace.”

“Grace! Baby! You answered.”

A chill shivered down her spine. “Isaac?”

“Yeah, honey, it’s me. Hey, I can’t talk long, but I wanted to tell you that we’re touching down in San Diego tomorrow. I’ll be home for Christmas this year. Isn’t that amazing?”

She stopped at a light behind Josh’s car, feeling as if she’d skidded into an alternate reality. “That’s great. Are you going up to LA to see your family?”

“If I have time, but not until I get a few days with you.”

Frustration bubbled to the surface. “Isaac, I’m working. I have plans with my mother. And you’re doing it again. You’re acting like we’re still married. You know that’s why I stopped answering your calls to begin with. And I don’t appreciate you sending Josh down to check on me.”

“Baby, just because we’re not married doesn’t mean I’ve stopped caring about you. I miss seeing you. I miss talking to you.”

“Listen, Isaac, this isn’t a good time—”

“Hold on.” He covered the mouthpiece and yelled to someone in the background, “I’ll be there in a fucking minute.” Then to Grace again, “I’ve got to go, baby. I’ll come find you as soon as my feet hit the ground.”

And he disconnected.

Fury whipped up in Grace’s chest like a hurricane. “You son of a
bitch
.”

She threw her phone across the car. It hit the dash, the passenger’s window, and landed on the seat. Grace gripped the steering wheel with both hands as she and Josh entered the hotel’s parking lot.

Isaac was going to ruin everything. If Josh hadn’t already told Isaac where she was and what she was doing, Isaac would find her. And as soon as he found her, he’d find Josh. And as soon as Josh was confronted, face-to-face, with his SEAL brother, his
“I’m over it”
would cave. Grace had seen these men turn into different people as soon as they met up. As if they flipped a switch and turned from ordinary guys to warriors. Blood brothers. Lifelines.

And no good SEAL went against a brother.

It had kept Josh from going after her in the first place.

It had sent him running last year.

And it would put a wall between them now.

Josh pulled into a parking spot, and Grace followed with her heart aching. She turned off the engine and sat there a moment, weighing decisions.

If she gave Josh the news tonight, she’d lose her last chance to love him.

And dammit, she deserved him. She deserved to be completely loved for who she was—even if it only lasted one night.

A night she planned on making sure lived in their memories forever.

Josh’s head swam with plans for their night together, making him hard before he even got to the car to help her out. He both couldn’t wait to make love to her and wanted to take it slow, make it last. The realization that she truly loved him turned him inside out.

But the moment he saw her face, his focus on getting her naked slipped. “Hey.” He cupped her face and took a better look in her eyes. Oh yeah, something was definitely wrong. “Gracie, we don’t have to—”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressed her body against his, and kissed him hard. Her hands sank into his hair, and she opened her mouth, searching out his tongue with her own. When they touched, Josh groaned, and his idea of getting naked with her resurfaced instantly.

“I want to,” she said between kisses. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”

He pulled back, searching her eyes. Something wasn’t right. “What happened between the house and here?”

“I realized how desperately I want you. How long I’ve desperately wanted you.” And she kissed him again. Her hands slid down his torso and stroked his erection. His cock surged beneath her hand.

“Ah, Jesus.” He broke the kiss and grabbed her hand. “Baby, slow down. I want to take our time tonight.”

She pulled out of his grasp and snapped open the button on his jeans. “We have all night to go slow.”

His zipper went next, and her hand pushed into his jeans. The sensation of flesh on flesh made a groan roll from his throat.

“God, I love the feel of you.” She pushed his boxers out of the way just as she had the night before and drew his cock fully into her hand. A stroke, a tug, and Josh was on the edge.

He fisted his hands in the back of her dress. “Jesus, Grace… You make me crazy.”

“I’m shooting for insane.” And she lowered to her knees.

“Whoa…what…?”

Her mouth closed over the head of his cock and his throat closed around his words. One hand slapped back against her car for balance, the other gripped a handful of her shiny, silky hair. Pleasure sang down his spine, and his back arched, pushing his cock deeper into her mouth. She opened and took him in with a hungry moan. The feel of all that soft, moist heat flooded his body with lust. Light exploded behind his closed eyelids. His brain grappled for traction. But her tongue stroked, her lips sucked, driving him into oblivion.

“Mmmm,” she murmured, dragging his length from her mouth. “Damn, that’s good.”

Way beyond good, but he had to preserve the few words he could manage. “Grace… We’re in a…parking lot…”

“It’s dark,” she said, her hand stroking his wet length.

He brought his other hand away from the car to cup her face. “Let’s go inside.”

She grinned up at him, and the wicked glint in her eye sprayed gasoline on his fire. “Afraid of getting caught?” She pulled his hand from her hair and closed his fingers around the door handle. “You always did love to play by the rules. Let’s check out the dark side…”

She took him deep in one long plunge. Pleasure spiked through his cock, up his back, down his legs. “Mother
fucker
.”

The possibility of being discovered added another thrilling layer to the erotic act, and her delicious hums of pleasure made him realize the taboo of public sex was jazzing her too.

And wasn’t that just fucking
blistering
hot?

But he needed more than physical pleasure with her. A lot more.

He released the door and gently eased her head back, drawing his length from her mouth. The sight of his cock sliding between her lips almost tipped him back over the edge. But he gripped her arms and pulled her to her feet.

“Baby…” he said, trying to catch his breath, “talk to me.”

Her brows pulled in a little crease and her lower lip pooched out in a maddeningly adorable display of disappointment. “What’s with you and talking? You never wanted to talk before.”

“Which is why I want to talk now. Not talking before kept us apart.”

She swayed into him, kissed his lips, then trailed kisses across his jaw and down his neck. “I really don’t want to talk, Josh. All I want you to know…” She tilted her head and started back up the other side of his neck. “Is that no matter what happens, I’ll always love you.”

A tingle of unease burned along his ribs. He gripped her jaw and drew her gaze to his. “Nothing’s going to happen.”

“Something always happens.”

“Not this time.” He wrapped one arm around her shoulder, yanked his jeans into place with the other, and started toward a side door. But a strange and new insecurity floated inside him now, the sensation of losing her when they’d finally just found each other again.

At his room, he pulled the key card from his wallet and faced the door. Grace slipped her arms around him from behind, pressed her body against his, laid her forehead to the indention of his spine, and just held him.

Josh unlocked the door and held it open with his foot, then turned and wrapped her in his arms. Sliding a hand beneath her hair, he lifted her mouth to his and kissed her as they made their way inside.

“God, I love the way you kiss,” he murmured against her lips. “Can’t get enough.”

“And I love the way you feel.” Her fingers slipped beneath the hem of his T-shirt and stroked his belly and chest. “Can’t wait to get my hands on that body of yours.”

Her hands slipped under his shirt, and her stroke tingled over the skin of his belly like electricity. “Baby, I let you have control last night.” He backed her toward the side of the bed, bent his knees, swept his hands up her thighs, and eased her dress over her hips, then braced one knee on the bed and laid her back. “Tonight, it’s my turn.”

He pressed one hand between her legs, covering her mound. She sipped a gasp and arched her back. “Oh,
God
…”

“That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” he murmured, thrumming with the anticipation of making her as crazy as she made him.

He kissed her breastbone where her ribs joined, and continued to create a hot, deliberate path toward her belly button. Her hands threaded into his hair. Her hips lifted into his hand. The beauty of it, of having his Grace beneath him, was almost too much to believe. But all he had to do was open his eyes, see her beautiful body spread out on the bed beneath him, bathed in moonlight spilling through the window, and he knew it was real.

He lifted the other knee to the bed, spread his hands across her flat belly, and let them sweep up, dragging her dress overhead and exposing a lace bra that matched her tiny panties.

Cupping her face between his hands, he kissed her gently. “This will never change, Grace. Me loving you will never change.”

Josh kissed a line down the middle of her body until he reached her panties, then opened his mouth over the lace covering her pussy and breathed long and hot. Grace groaned, the sound a languid plea for more. He kissed her through the lace. Licked her. Another soft moan from her throat heated his blood. He spread his hands over her thighs and pressed her legs wide, rubbing his face over her soft pussy. She smelled spicy and sultry and musky. Delicious.

He tugged the lace away from her sweet spot and found her pussy bare. Completely and totally bare. His cock hitched against his jeans.

“Fucking beautiful,” he breathed, then licked, and moaned at the taste of her—sweet, tangy, hot. And licked again. Deeper. “Mmm.”

“Oh, shit…” Her hips rocked and wiggled. Her hands fisted in his hair. The sights and sounds of her pleasure turned his blood to jet fuel. He gripped the panties at her hip, and with one pull, the flimsy fabric snapped.

“Oh my God.” Grace gasped. “You
ripped
them? Those are expensive.”

“Now who’s concerned about rules? I’ll make it worth your while,” he said before covering her pussy with his mouth. And, oh God, yeah, this was what he wanted. Warm, soft, erotic…

“Fuck,” she choked out, back arching of the bed. “Oh my God… Josh.”

Hearing her scream his name was a wild aphrodisiac. He growled with lust, opened his eyes, and watched her fall back on the bed, arms overhead, fisting her hair. Her head rolled back and forth, her back arched, her hips writhed. And the sounds that scraped from her throat set fire to all that fuel inside him.

“Josh… God…
Please
…”

He knew exactly what she wanted. And he smiled as he eased her folds open, took her clit between his lips, and suckled.

Grace cried out and slapped one hand to the bed, fisting the comforter. “Jesus… Josh…”

Her body bowed, jerked, and tensed. Her head fell back, mouth dropped open, and her thighs clamped around his shoulders as her hips bucked against his mouth.

Her explosion was quick, hot, and intense, and Josh floated on the ecstasy of her pleasure. As the aftermath faded, her body went lax, and her thighs fell open around him.

He rested his chin on her belly, focused on pulling his own body back from the edge while he let her enjoy the postorgasm euphoria.

“Oh my
God
,” she breathed, tossing a forearm over her eyes. “You’re so
good
at that.”

An unexpected chuckle popped from his throat. He buried his face in her belly, which made her laugh too. “Why do you sound so shocked?”

“Because I’ve never… It’s never…been that damn
good
.”

His ego soared. His heart swelled. He crawled along her body, stroking the soft skin of her belly, sliding his finger along the edge of her bra, searching for the clasp. He found it between her breasts and flicked it open, spread the fabric, and stroked the perfect flesh.

“You were right.” Her comment brought his gaze up to her relaxed, gorgeous face. “That was totally worth the price of new panties.”